James Barnor

b. 1929, Ghana


Eva, c. 1960s
Archival print
30x40cm
Edition of 10

Image courtesy Autograph gallery, United Kingdom
This is one of the most recognisable images by Barnor. It is exemplative of the times – the 60s in London. Barnor had settled in that country and while he continued to take images in a studio setting, he also frequently captured black women in London.

In this way he documented the history black people in that city, country, which perhaps went overlooked at that time. 

As with the fifties hairdos some of his female subjects sported in Ghana, Accra, many of his black subjects in London in the sixties also wore hairpieces, wigs and extensions in order to conform to the fashionable sixties hairstyles of that era.